THE ALASKAN BOU
edge within their reach at that day.
As early as the sixteenth century ex
plorers had visited the northwest coast
of America, but up to the last decade
of the eighteenth century very little
accurate knowledge of that region ex
isted. Between 1792 and 1794 Captain
Vancouver, of the British navy, visited
this coast, sent out by his government
to discover the supposed passage or
water connection between the North
Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. He made
very careful surveys of the coasts of the
continent and islands, and his narrative
and charts, giving detailed results of
his surveys, were published in 1798.
INDARY TRIBUNAL
5
These were the main sources of informa
tion upon which the negotiators sought
to fix in the treaty of 1825 the boundary
line between the Russian and British
possessions.
They described the water line as fol
lows : " Starting from the southernmost
point of the island called Prince of Wales
Island,
.
.
.
the said line shall
ascend northward along the passage
called Portland Channel as far as the
point of the mainland, where it reaches
the 56th degree of north latitude."
The first matter which the tribunal had
to determine was, what is the Portland
Channel as described in the treaty, and
SScale
of M;les
Map Showing Boundary in Portland Canal